St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-11-05

outswim any man in the fleet, and
owing to his extreme popularity he was
not enved. This was chiefly due to an act
| of singular bravery he performed. One
afternoon, while tie men were at work,
the alarm of SHARK was given, and
there was a general rush for the boats ;
I but before the men got in several large
| man-eaters darted through the water,
and instantly red cloud formed in the
depths below, shutting out one of the
| horrible tragedies that fortunately rarely
occur. The men drew back from the
fearful sight with one exception, and
this was Don Lara Selling huge knife,
he plunged headlong into the cloud of
. blood, and the next moment, to the as
constituent of all, a huge shark darted
out of the water with Lara clinging to
it, one hand gripping it by the gills and
the other holding the knife that was
plunged into the monster up to the hilt.
The shark made desperate effort to es
cape, but the snake-like Spaniard drove
the weapon home again and again.
All this occurred quicker than it
can be told, and while he was
still struggling with the shark an
other rushed at him. Slipping
from the dying fish, Lara deity sank, and,
coming up under the other, thrust the
cleaning blade into it with such force
that he could not withdraw it, and was
towed ten or twelve feet by the terrified
animal, mat then tore away and escaped.
Lara Immediately swan back, dived to
the bottom in about twenty feet of water,
lifted the man that had been attacked
and bore him to the surface, and though
he lost leg he ultimately recovered. If
you can point out in war or anywhere
Drawer piece of work than that l want to
hear of it."
The number of professional shark
killers is very few. Some are found in
in the South Pacifc-all men who seem
to have fixed antipathy to the shark,
and delight in meeting him in his own
element. Contrary to the general i'm
preston, the shark is a great coward,
and will rarely attack man unless he is
particularly defenseless. The writer has,
not in the least in sense of bravado,
frequently swum over channel in the
Gulf of Mexico, where sharks from ten to
fourteen feet long had been often seen
passing few moments before, and could
be caught by tossing over a well-baited
line. They were alarmed by number
of swimmers, and l have seen diver
dash into the water directly at a big
man eater that was slowly moving along.
In these waters I never heard of a shark
attacking human being, though have
seen dozen devouring cow. Again,
certain sharks show a bulldog fero-
city, probably when extremely hum
gry A friend told me that once when
at anchor in the Mediterranean sea the
crew went in swimming from the ship,
and were enjoying themselves when the
cry of "Shark y came from the watch
All the men reached the ship but one,
who was some distance away. The
others tumbled into the boat and pulled
for him with will, but before they
could reach him he went down, and
my friend, peering into the water as
the boat dashed over the spot, saw the
unfortunate man severed in twain by
an enormous shark. A shark with mar
bled sides or spots, called the leopard"
is particularly savage, and in the Florida
reef one of these brutes sprang from the
water and seized man as he was climb
ing up the rope. In another case man
was hung from the quarter-yard over
the water for some crime, when huge
man-eater dashed from the ocean and
bore the body away. Fortunately these
occurrences are rare, and probably "man-
eater" is an unfair appellation to give the
shark, as many other animals kill more
human beings in the course of a year.
Few animals are so we'll adapted to |
create fear in the human mind-the very
appearance of the shark is terrible-and |
its movements under water-slow, with |
a peculiar writhing motion of the tail